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now forgotten) have to be applied ; the result of which is, that the 

 seasons do not recur year after year on the same dates, or even in 

 the same months. 



The consequence of this non-conformity is that, as a rule, agri- 

 cultural operations are, so far as any calendar goes, chiefly governed 

 by what our villagers call naJchats, and the Pundits nichattr ; pro- 

 perly speaking, I believe, nakshattra. These nakhats are nothing 

 but subdivisions of the Zodiac, of which there are 27 in all, or 2^ 

 in each ^'burj " or sign, and their names are given to the periods 

 during which the sun's apparent path lies within them. Of course 

 by the slow effects of precession and nutation, the seasons in 

 which these nakhats fall very slowly change, but practically they 

 are sufficiently immutable for every-day life, and cultivators com- 

 monly enquire about them from the Pundits, regulate their sow- 

 ings not a little by them, and have the firmest belief in certain 

 traditional prognostications, favourable and unfavourable, to their 

 crops, dependent on what happens during their course. 



With the 15 nakhats that lie between about the 27th November 

 and 23rd May we need not concern ourselves, as one hears com- 

 paratively little of the good or evil influence of these; but the 12 

 nakhats which begin about the 23rd May play an important part, 

 according to our agriculturists, in all their operations, and must 

 be separately noticed. 



1. EoHiNEE. — From about* the 23rd May to the 5th June. In 

 this period, say the people, the rains should commence, and this is 

 the time to sow maize, oorud (Phaseolus Roxhurghii) — murrooa 

 (Eleusine coracana). The native couplet runs — 



" Rohinee mirgsir boo mukkha 

 Oordh, Murrooa, deo na taka " : 



" Sow maize and mash (or oorud) and millets in Eohinee or Mirg- 

 sir, but, pay no rent." 



2. Mirgsir. — From about the 6th to the 19th June. In this 

 period also the crops above mentioned are sown, but if much rain 

 falls during it, neither jowar (Sorghum vulgare) nor cotton must 

 be sown, otherwise, when they come to flower, insects will surely 

 attack them ; the only consolation being that if it rains well in 

 Ootra nakhat {vide infra) the insects will disappear. Panicum 

 milliaceum, though generally a hot- weather crop with us, is said 



* Owing to differences in the calendars, the nakhats do not always begin 

 on exactly the same European dates, sometimes Rohinee, for instance, begins 

 on the 22nd May. 



